•Boys Like You•Hardzello•

•New Kid•

"It's so fucking cold"
He muttered to himself, nesting his frosted hands in the frayed ends of his multicoloured scarf.
His day already had a fine start, you know the usual slip over on the ice outside the front porch fall flat on his arse to go on to pretend it never happened before scurrying off to join the familiar group at the bus stop. 

The walk from Joe's house to his stop was a short yet bitter walk. On cold January mornings like today he liked to count the icicles along the fence, dragging his finger breaking each and every one off one at a time, reminding him of his ex lovers over the years.
He was 17, with the track record of a bisexual prostitute. His flings were often short lived and kept to himself. Only one person knew of his affairs.

Joe had been hurt in the past. Left for nothing.
His mum walked out when he was young, his previous friends had all got bored and pushed him away. So he decided, if you can't beat them, join them.

He loved to cause pain. He loved to watch the light leave their eyes as he broke their heart. He was cold. He told them he loved them, got them in bed, and left.

He grinned to himself thinking of his last victim. Tyler, sensitive little Tyler. Joe himself was small, and so often preyed on larger targets, they were easily fooled by the skinny innocent looking lad. Tyler was the tall broad type. Came across as a real lads lad. Not so much the day Joe broke it to him that he was a shag. Nothing but a shag.

Joe came to an almost stop as he noticed an unfamiliar extra body stood next to his two friends.
"Joe!" Gwilym waved, beckoning Joe
"This is Ben, he's new. Make him feel welcome as I know you will" he nudged.
Joe raised his eyebrows slowly and shrugged a casual "what's up"
The new boy smiled back with a small wave and kept his head down
"Joe, you got a lighter on you?" Rami asked reaching into his pocket to then share around the slightly bashed up cigarettes.
"You smoke new kid?" Joe asked pulling out his lighter"
The new kid shrugged and took a cigarette from Rami once offered.

The four stood around, freezing fingers, taking drag after drag, waiting for the can of shit they called a school bus.

Once it arrived, The lads piled on, racing to the back. Being the only sixth formers on the bus they felt "entitled"  to the back row, mainly to smoke without being caught. Eventually the boys became familiar with Ben, laughing about drunken or high mishaps, and three was sure to become four.
"Do you guys by any chance know of anywhere private around the school, to uhhh y'know?" Ben edged
The boys all smirked clearly, their minds in the gutter

"Blimey, Ben, first day and you're already a top shagger?" Gwil laughed, earning a laugh from the others
"No!" Ben defended himself turning to a whisper "I've got a joint in my bag, wondered if you lot were the type to split it?"

The lads all nodded in agreement and told Ben about the old Tech unit. The building used to house tech lessons until it began to rot and fall to pieces. The school had never gotten round to pulling it down, and so the rickety shed had become the boys' personal designated smoking area.
Joe hopped off the bus first, winking at Tyler as he walked by, his broken eyes then shooting to the floor. Joe smirked reaching back to high five Gwil, his one friend who knew EVERYTHING. They had been best friends since primary school, and showed no signs of that stopping any time soon. Gwilym could only roll his eyes as he put his hand out to high five joe in annoyance.

Rami noticed Lucy across the school yard and threw a hand up yelling to her as the rest of the group, bar a confused Ben, rolled their eyes.

"He's been pining after her for weeks now" groaned Joe
Ben laughed to himself.
"What's so funny new boy?" Laughed Gwil
"Oh nothing..I errr..well I thought he was gay" blushed the blonde, feeling rather embarrassed as the others explains how Rami had been crushing on Lucy since year 9, and had been friend zoned ever since.